Page 85 of The Restaurant on Plum Island
Shay stared at Shaun, frozen in fear. Carly slid her chair closer to Shay, and the girl immediately leaned as close as she could to Carly.
“Aw, isn’t that sweet,” Shaun purred. “You always were such a great mother.” He sighed. “Reef is going to miss you. But luckily, he’ll have his grieving father who never got over his love with his wife standing by his son’s side.”
“You knew it was me when you kidnapped me?” Alex moved the conversation and attention away from Shay and Carly.
“Were you not listening?” Shaun raised an eyebrow before taunting. “Or isn’t your hearing device turned up?”
Carly frowned as she glared at Shaun. “I always knew you were a nasty bully.”
“That hurts.” Shaun’s head swung toward her. “I treated you like a queen, and you had that brat then no longer had time forme!”
“Wow!” Alex spluttered. “What a narcissist.” His eyes narrowed as Shaun’s shoulders stiffened. “I bet your mommy told you that the world revolved around you, and the sun rose and set with you.”
“Leave my mother out of this,” Shaun warned through gritted teeth. “You know nothing about her.”
“Oh, but I do!” Alex told him. “You see, we’ve just learned that you and Shay’s mother have the same birth mother. And I know that Laura Liddiard died of an overdose in a back alley drug den.”
“How dare you!” Shaun rasped, his hands balling into fists as the rage burned in his eyes. “My mother died at home, on her sofa, where my sister found her.”
“Which sister would that be?” Carly knew they were about to push Shaun over the edge as she jumped on the taunting route with Alex. “Bethany or Daphne?”
“You!“ Shaun pointed at Shay, and Carly felt her stiffen. She heard a chair scrape and looked to see Alex had drawn closer to his niece on the other side. “I told you never to tell anyone about us.”
“I… I…” Shay’s voice was barely a whisper as she tried to shrink away from Shaun.
“She never told us!” Alex piped up. “I found out a few hours before you had us kidnapped.” Carly knew he was lying. “Is this about your abandonment issues, Shaun?”
”Idon’thave abandonment issues,“ Shaun seethed. “This is about your family trying to take everything away from me. First, my father with all his record tours.” He gave a manic laugh. “But I managed to stop that. That’s when I realized how fickle stars were.”
“You were the one that spread those lies about my father cheating Paul out of his royalties?” Alex gasped.
“Yes.” Shaun nodded proudly.
“Wait, I thought your father left you and your sister?” Carly remembered the only time Shaun had spoken about his real father.
“That man wasn’t my father!” Shaun grated. “He used my mother until she could no longer sing because of her addiction, stole all our money, and then fled.” His eyes glazed over. “He was a struggling musician when she met him. As soon as he became famous, thanks to songs my mother wrote, he left. He’d driven my mother to become an addict, then left.”
“That’s a lot of issues you have there,” Alex mocked.
“Idon’t have issues!“ Shaun growled, glaring at Alex. “It’s all these so-called stars who have issues. People who have everything—adoring fans, money, fame… And what do they do?” His eyes raked Carly with disgust. “They become weak and whiney. They have to have more and more—families, babies, and they don’t want to take a break from their achievements.”
“Everyone wants to have a family, Shaun,” Carly pointed out. “I told you when we got married that I wanted to have children, and you agreed.”
“I didn’t think we’d have them!” Shaun admitted. “If your stupid uncle didn’t move in with us while you were pregnant…” He cut off what he was going to say, leaving the implications hanging in the air and making Carly’s heart pound.
“You know Bethany was also going to be a star,” Shaun told them. His voice softened, and his eyes took on a far-off look as he spoke about his sister. “She had a voice like none I’d heard before. I was going to be her manager, and we planned it all out.”
“But then she became a druggy, like your mother, and damaged her vocal cords,” Alex filled in the blanks. “Yes. I know all about that, too.”
“It wasn’t her fault!” Shaun insisted. “She had an accident.”
“That’s what Beth told you and her father,” Alex pointed out as he pushed more of Shaun’s buttons. “The truth is that she got in with a bad crowd. It wasn’t until she met Ethan in college that she tried to turn her life around.”
“It wasn’t Ethan that helped her!” Shaun shouted. “It was ME!”
Carly felt Shay move closer to her. “Can we stop talking about Beth? Have some respect for Shay. It’s her mother you’re talking about.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Alex said.
